Tear away or contact fastening systems are well known. Such systems incorporate two opposing segments of material which are engageable in substantially juxtaposed relation to one another. A first segment of the material incorporates a plurality of outwardly projecting hooking structures while the second segment of material incorporates a plurality of outwardly projecting loop structures. Upon engagement between the two segments the hooking structures engage the opposing loop structures thereby establishing a bond between the two opposing segments. This bond may be broken by the application of a peel away action between the two opposing segments of material thereby permitting the segments to be progressively disengaged from one another. The engagement may be reactivated by simply bringing the segments back into contacting laminar relation with one another.
In the past, the hooking structures and loop structures across the segments of material have been formed by a variety of practices. According to one practice, a plurality of yarns forming the hooking and/or loop segments have been stitched through a polymeric film in a fully threaded tricot stitch to form loops projecting from a first surface of the film and to form locking portions of the stitches across a second opposite surface of the film. Such a construction is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,343 the teachings of which are incorporated by reference as is fully set forth herein. The hook portions which may be either of a classic hook configuration or which have an enlarged head which nonetheless engages the loop portion may be formed by first producing a loop portion of the material and thereafter either cutting the loops along one side to form the hooks or melting the upper portions of the loops to form projections with enlarged heads at their ends.